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Turn Your Marketing Materials Green

Posted on 04/09/2012

Even Kermit the Frog knows that it’s not easy being green. But when you’re marketing, who says it can’t be easy? Besides being friendly to the environment, using green approaches in your marketing could help you gain recognition and support from audiences you haven’t reached before. And besides that, your company can feel great knowing that you’re helping preserve the environment. Maybe you’re just not sure how to go about changing your ways, or you don’t know if the risk of changing tactics is worth the reward. Here are some simple strategies to help your company start utilizing sustainable marketing. Because by starting small, you could later turn your green campaign into something big.

The Three R’s
We’ve been hearing this statement for some time now. “Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.” Maybe you utilize the slogan at home, but at work you think it’s too difficult to make the change. However, you could attract a variety of customers by advertising the green approaches you’re using.

Reduce If it’s habit to print something for each round of edits, see if employees are willing to change their ways. Although it is important to see how the product will actually print on paper, many times employees will print out unnecessary documents. Encourage employees to cut back on clicking print and reduce paper usage.

Reuse Maybe you have leftover flyers or other materials that aren’t time sensitive. Before tossing them in the trash, think of ways to repurpose them. Your printer may have an idea to make modifications to incorporate them into another marketing campaign. You could turn this venture into a fun exercise for employees by rewarding the person who comes up with the most creative idea to reuse the materials.

Recycle This one’s simple, and you might already be doing it. Set up recycle bins around the office for all of those papers that you printed with a spelling error, and would have just thrown in the trash. You can also recycle leftover advertising materials in the office. While you’re implementing a paper recycling program, consider other recyclable materials such as aluminum, plastic and glass.

Paper
It’s probably not a good plan to convert to an online only marketing approach. Much business can be gained through printed materials. But you can still use a sustainable marketing approach. For starters, use paper that has been recycled and is labeled “processed chlorine free.” Not only is this paper recycled, but chlorine in paper has been found to have a negative impact on the environment.

All Aboard
Take advantage of what the company as a whole is doing to go green as a unique selling point in your marketing endeavors. If your products are somehow considered “green” customers will want to know. Also, get the entire office on board with possible energy saving or other green practices. Many customers appreciate hearing about what you’re doing to help the environment.

Be Authentic
Once you’ve implemented sustainable marketing strategies by going green, let your customers know about it. Come up with a simple logo to put on all of the materials that lets them know the materials they are receiving are good for the environment. Be sure that you are completely honest about the practices that you have established. This may seem like a no-brainer, but it can be easy to want to embellish the practices you’re implementing to make your company look better. This could damage all the other good you’re doing for your marketing efforts, not to mention the Earth.